- The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg dives into the history and innovation that brought color to black and white photographs.

Learn the fascinating journey and artistry of color images in "True to the Tint: The Quest for Color Photography".

(dramatic orchestra music) - The exhibition really looks at the first 100 years of photography.

The hand tinting in the 1840s, all the way up to the first real color process of the very early 20th century that lasted until about 1930.

- The earliest photographs included are Daguerreotypes.

That's the earliest type of photography that became commercially available.

It's really the first type of photography there is.

The title of this exhibition is "True to the Tint: The Quest for Color Photography".

And "True to the Tint" means as lifelike as possible.

And that, of course, really inspired the title, but informs a lot of the exhibition.

(dramatic orchestra music continues) One of the things we've done is we've divided up, by process, so there's a short explanation, with no chemistry involved.

(laughs) Next to each one of the different examples of photography.

One of the reasons we didn't have any chemistry involved is, it's very complicated.

And we realized that when we were drafting labels, the very first thing we explained was Daguerreotypes.

It's a very dangerous, very complicated process.

And after three paragraphs of that, I realized nobody wanted to read that on the wall.

They're very nicely identified, and you can tell one process from the other that way.

You will also, I think, be able to very clearly see in the exhibition itself.

For instance, one of the processes is called an Opalotype.

An Opalotype takes its name from opal, because these photographs are printed on opalescent glass.

It had a slightly iridescent quality.

Or sometimes milk glass.

But Opalotypes you can immediately tell, because they have this kind of translucent, milky white background.

And that's very different, of course, than ,say, a hand-tinted platinum photograph.

'Cause a platinum print photograph has these really beautiful, kind of sooty, rich shadows.

It's to me, one of the classic forms of photography, but then it's been tinted.

So, yes, I think you'll very clearly be able to tell one process from another when you go through the exhibition.

(dramatic orchestra music continues) - The concept for this exhibition came from a desire to really delve into our photography collection, which numbers to probably close to 10,000 pieces.

And then we decided, let's look into the color aspect of photography.

And from there, we paired it down to about 170 objects that you see in the exhibition.

(dramatic orchestra music continues) To pare down the pieces, we decided to look at the subject matter.

We really wanted to diversify both the subject matter through the sitters, through the geographic locations.

So what you see is really a nice mix of different types of people from different walks of life, photography from really all over the world, and even locally here in St. Petersburg, Florida.

- I think that color photography, before color photography is really cool.

And I just think it's really nice how they started out with the portraits of people.

You know, it's such a great way to kind of feel the humanity of the past firsthand, and I think it's a really good hook into the exhibition.

- Another one of the aspects of this exhibition that I really loved was looking at the photographs themselves as historical documents.

One of my very favorite works is a beach scene that is done with the potato grain process that was invented in France.

And it's a little bit grainy, but it shows this group of people, just everyday people, on the beach, around 1900.

And to me, it was so modern!

And this is this incredible glimpse back into that time.

To me, it's like opening a window, and looking back into the past.

- This is a very relatable exhibition.

A lot of the photography is personal photography.

It's people photographing just like we would.

There's that look at how people were living in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

It's called vernacular photography.

It's photography by everyday people.

Then you do have some of the larger name, more artistic type pieces.

So I think when people come in, they're gonna find at least one image that they are going to be able to relate to, and that'll probably get them excited.

Another interesting aspect of this exhibition is the realization that in the 19th century, they were using photography for entertainment.

So, one of the interactive that we have is a stereograph.

So it's a double image on a card, where you put it into a viewer, and your eyes adjust to make it into a 3D image.

It's very similar to us sitting around at our house, looking on our phone, and flipping through images.

They were doing the same thing in the 19th century with these cards.

- I'm a camp counselor, and the kids, they really have a lot of great perspectives on the artwork.

You know, they walk in, and of course, they immediately go to the stereograph, 'cause it's like the interactive element where they can look at the thing and look at the photos.

And I feel like with kids, you kind of need to emphasize that these were like real people that lived before us, or this was a real horse a hundred years ago.

And I think when they get that, it really kind of blows their mind.

- I think that people, when they think about color photography, just assume that, poof!

It arrived sometime in the mid-20th century.

But almost from the moment photography was invented, people were trying to tint them.

- Nowadays, we've kind of reverted back to the 19th century, where we're taking the images that we use on our phone, we have different apps that we can change the look of that photograph.

We can make ourselves look different, more lively.

It's exactly what they were doing in the 19th century.

But with technology now, with the higher technology, I guess you could say.

- One of the things that I hope that visitors will gain from this exhibition is a greater appreciation for the color process.

I also hope they get a better understanding of how color radically changes black and white photographs, and their use of added color really enhances them and transforms them in ways that I didn't think was possible.

And then the other thing I hope people gain from this is a better understanding of the Museum of Fine Arts Collection, which is extraordinary.

And this gives you a little better sense of the incredible depth and the breadth of that collection.

- [Announcer] "True to the Tint: The Quest for Color Photography" is on view through September 22nd.

To learn more, visit mfastpete.org.